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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29941071">Thanatophobia</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Polyhexian/pseuds/Polyhexian'>Polyhexian</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Excerpts from an Electronic Empire [9]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Original Work</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Established Relationship, M/M, POV Third Person, Sickfic</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-03-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-15 23:34:29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>4,230</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29941071</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Polyhexian/pseuds/Polyhexian</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Thrush's human gets the flu.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Evan/Thrush</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Excerpts from an Electronic Empire [9]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2126772</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Thanatophobia</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Thrush was happy.</p><p>Most of the time he felt too anxious to really just <em> be </em> happy. Something always wormed its way into his processor and left him nervous, left that happiness tainted. Ever since Evan had moved in, though, cool and patient with a grounding personality to anchor himself on he felt like he'd been calmer, like things had been easier to let go of.</p><p>He'd never thought he would be living a life like this. He'd lived over three times longer than he'd ever thought he would, he had his own home, a job that mattered, a trine, a boyfriend that loved him. If he could have gone back and told himself where he'd be today ten years ago when he was still on the bison farm, he wouldn't have dared to believe it. </p><p>He tightened his arms, coming out of defrag in the darkness. Laying on his partner's chest he took a moment to revel in the warmth he emitted, trapped beneath the comforter. Sometimes Thrush couldn't help but laugh at how accommodated he was. He knew he was pointy and hard and probably a lot less fun to cuddle than the human was, but he'd never complained about it. Thrush had gotten lucky. </p><p>Thrush twitched, distracted from his thoughts when he realized that he was actually… a little <em> too </em> warm. </p><p>He shifted to sit up, tilting his helm downward and flipping over to thermalvision. 100.035f. That wasn't normal. </p><p>Not just that, but his face was flushed uncharacteristically red. Thrush flicked the end of his tail anxiously, and after only a moment's trepidation, set a hand on Evan's shoulder and gave him a gentle shake. </p><p>"Evan," Thrush said quietly, "Are you alright?" </p><p>"Ugh," the human groaned, squeezing his eyes shut, "'M fine."</p><p>"Are you?"</p><p>"Am I what?"</p><p>"Alright, Evan, are you alright? You're warm."</p><p>"Huh?" Evan blinked his eyes open blearily and pushed himself up on one elbow, "Uh… no, I don't feel well."</p><p>"You have a fever," Thrush told him, dredging quickly through the internet. There was too many things that caused fevers to determine the problem himself. "Do you know why?"</p><p>"Uh…" Evan rubbed at his eyes and now Thrush could see moisture on his forehead. "I probably have a cold or something." He shook his head and sat all the way up, running his hand through his hair. "Would you grab me a glass of water? My throat hurts."</p><p>"Oh! Yeah, yeah, of course!" Thrush scampered out of his nest and into the kitchen to grab a glass from the cabinet and fill it at the faucet. He skimmed through the internet again while he did, downloading more reading material on the common cold. He handed Evan the glass. </p><p>"Thanks," the human mumbled. He tipped the glass back and drained it in one long gulp. Thrush flicked his tail, anxiety in his struts.</p><p>"I don't think you have a cold," he said.</p><p>"Hrm?" Evan asked, looking up.</p><p>"Your normal temperature averages at 97.45," Thrush explained. Evan squinted at him. "And-"</p><p>"Do you just measure my temperature all the time?" he interrupted.</p><p>"Yes," Thrush flicked his tail, "I track your pulse, too." </p><p>"Hrm," Evan hummed, sitting back and slouching down. "D'you think that's weird?" </p><p>Thrush blinked. "Is it? I'm sorry. Is that rude?"</p><p>"I don't think it's <em> rude</em>," Evan mulled, "I guess it's just weird that you can see something on me I can't see on you. It feels… weird, you know?"</p><p>"Hrrm," Thrush hummed, crossing his arms in thought, "It's not like it's super <em> intentional, </em> it's just like... I can see it and I can hear it and I'm not putting a lot of extra effort into it or anything." He tapped the front of his helm in thought before he snapped his fingers. "Hey! I got bluetooth, you know. I can throw together an app that tracks <em> my </em> vitals if it would make you feel better."</p><p>Evan looked up and then grinned and tittered with laughter. Thrush tilted his head at him.</p><p>"Yeah. Yeah, I think it would," Evan laughed, wiping his forehead again, "I think maybe it's still weird, but we're just really weird people."</p><p>"Well you knew <em> that.</em>"</p><p>"Anyway," Evan handwaved, "What were you saying? I'm 97 and a half degrees? Wow, I'm cold."</p><p>"97.45," Thrush corrected, "Usually. Literature says fevers over 100 are very uncommon in colds. You most likely have the flu."</p><p>Evan's whole face shifted as he grimaced. "Oh. Great. That sucks."</p><p>Thrush skimmed through more articles. "You're supposed to get a flu shot every year? You didn't tell me that."</p><p>"Well! It's not like we have a CVS here," he mumbled, sounding embarrassed, "I hadn't heard anywhere had them on this side of the border."</p><p>Thrush opened up his local resources info tab and flipped through files, optic tracking across his HUD. "We have them. We should be ordering these from Proxima every year. Why didn't anyone tell me we were supposed to be giving you these?" </p><p>"I don't know," Evan groaned, "I've only lived here for like two years, it's not <em> my </em> fault."</p><p>"Wow!" Thrush exclaimed, "You're supposed to get a <em> lot </em> of these things!"</p><p>"What, flu shots?"</p><p>"Vaccines! Good grief, human immune systems are terrible! Have you ever heard of polio? This is awful!"</p><p>"I'm vaccinated against polio, hon," Evan replied, sinking down into the blankets with a sigh.</p><p>"I'm ordering these right now," Thrush fretted, "We have to run up to Selawik but you're getting these."</p><p>"Yes, dear."</p><p>"Do you take vitamins?" Thrush asked, "You're supposed to take vitamins."</p><p>"Can you grab me some more water?"</p><p>"Huh? Oh, yeah!"</p><p>"And a bucket."</p><p>"A bucket?" Thrush asked, "For what?"</p><p>"For puking in."</p><p>Thrush's antennae shot up. "Oh. Ew." He returned to the kitchen to collect what he'd been asked for. "What else do you need?"</p><p>"I've got some tylenol in the bathroom," he suggested, "Other than that, nothing for now. At least I can't get <em> you </em> sick."</p><p>"That <em> would </em> be impressive," Thrush mused, trotting off to retrieve the Tylenol, "But our viruses are incompatible, I'm let to believe." </p><p>"Mm," Evan hummed. "Come back to bed. Give me something cold to hug."</p><p>"I'm coming!" Thrush huffed, grabbing the bottle and returning. He crawled over the back of one of the nest-couches and back under the covers. "Here."</p><p>"Thank you, dear," Evan told him, giving a chaste kiss to the helm before he popped two and set it on the floor. He shuffled back down under the sheet to pull Thrush closer. </p><p>"Are you going to be okay?" Thrush asked him quietly, "It says online that sometimes the flu kills people. Should I be worried?"</p><p>"No," Evan assured him confidently, "It's a miserable thing to have, but a mostly healthy 25 year old isn't going to die from the flu. It's just going to suck."</p><p>Thrush fidgeted anxiously, before he settled and nodded. "Okay. I'm sure you know better than me."</p><p>"It's fine," the human responded, voice soft, "Nobody's dying today." </p><p>"Okay," Thrush sighed, "I'm sorry. I know I'm being paranoid."</p><p>"You don't have to be sorry," Evan told him, nuzzling the top of his helm gently with his face, "I know why it scares you."</p><p>"I just hate to be a nuisance," he murmured, "I know it's irrational. I do. I'm just- I'm worried. All the time."</p><p>"I know," Evan soothed, "It's okay. You don't have to be easy or convenient or amenable. You just have to be you. And you've got trauma."</p><p>"It's stupid. I could get rid of it."</p><p>"We've all got unpleasant parts of us," Evan said softly, "You're not stupid for holding onto the good and the bad both. So if you need to worry, worry. As much as you want."</p><p>Thrush tightened his fingers around the fabric of his shirt. "Thank you."</p><p>"Mmhmm."</p><p>Thrush listened to his heart beat through his ribs, skin radiating too much warmth. <em> Nobody's dying today. </em> He hoped so.</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>Thrush was startled out of recharge when Evan sat up sharply, rolling him off to the side. He had to wait a moment for his vestibular sensors to restabilize before he could push himself up and look back. The human was bent over the bucket.</p><p>Logically, Thrush knew he was vomiting. He knew what vomiting was. However, he had never actually <em> seen </em> a human vomit before. He'd seen plenty of the gross things that bison could do, but humans? Humans he had far less experience with. </p><p>Suffice to say, it was absolutely horrific. He sat straight up, antennae flattened and wings folded, and tried desperately to remind himself that was <em> not </em> a dying sound, it was normal, humans did it all the time, it was a normal biological function. He was <em> not </em> dying. </p><p>"Are you alright?" he asked, when the human finally stopped, panting heaving breaths that shook his whole body. Evan didn't turn but nodded weakly. Thrush flicked his tail anxiously and switched to thermals.</p><p>101.304. </p><p>"Your fever is up again," he said quietly, </p><p>"Right," Evan mumbled. He was still panting, cast in sun streaked strips of light cast between the blinds from the mid morning sun. </p><p>"How are you feeling?" Thrush asked. "Is it worse?"</p><p>"It's worse." The human's voice was strained, hoarse. It crackled like static. Thrush didn't like it or the abnormal heat radiating from his skin. </p><p>"What do you need? What can I get you?"</p><p>He sat up finally, looking at the bucket, then turned to Thrush and grimaced.</p><p>"Oh! Oh. Yes. I can get that, hang on." Thrush scurried out of the nest and grabbed the bucket, deeply relieved that he couldn't smell it. He started for the kitchen sink when Evan stopped him.</p><p>"No, uh- dump it in the toilet," he suggested.</p><p>"Oh," Thrush said, stopping, "That makes sense."</p><p>When he'd finished cleaning it out and returned Evan was asleep again, curled around a pillow and panting open-mouthed. Thrush set the bucket back down next to him and kneaded his hands together, trying not to let his anxiety consume him. He was fine. It was normal. It was an unpleasant illness but he would get over it. Humans got sick all the time. </p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>Thrush had been clinging to him for hours, switching between functioning as a heating pad and a cold pack on request. Evan's temperature had slowly been rising in fractions throughout the day, his sleep becoming more and more disturbed. He seemed less and less coherent when he woke intermittently.</p><p>Worst of all, he had started talking in his sleep.</p><p>"Mom," he murmured, voice breaking, "I'm <em> sorry.</em>"</p><p>Thrush shivered where he was wrapped around his back, the human's skin sweat-slicked despite him running his cooling fans on high. Evan didn't talk much about his mother. Thrush knew she had died a fair amount of years ago, but he didn't even know her name. Alone with his thoughts and too stricken with worry to leave him by himself, Thrush was realizing that for all his human knew about him, he knew very little about what his life had been like before. </p><p>He was an only child. He'd grown up in Georgia, somewhere with horses. He'd left at 18, when his mother died and he'd taken a military scholarship. He'd gotten as far away from there as he could and ended up in Alaska. He'd met Thrush. </p><p>Thrush wondered suddenly if he'd been over sharing. He wondered, too, why his human talked so little about it. Had it been so unworthy of talking about? Thrush wondered if he'd had friends he left behind. He wondered if he'd had any real military training before he was shuffled into the tech sector. He wondered if he knew how to shoot a gun. Thrush didn't. </p><p>"It wasn't for you," Evan mumbled.</p><p>Thrush squeezed him tighter and shut his optic. It was fine. Humans got sick all the time. Fevers caused nightmares all the time. Talking in your sleep is normal. Humans do all sorts of weird things when they're sick, it doesn't mean they're going to die.</p><p>"I couldn't," Evan said under his breath, voice earnest. Thrush mashed his optic into his shirt.</p><p>"Please don't die," he said brokenly, coiling his tail around his leg, "Please, please, <em> please </em> don't die."</p><p>"Thrush," Zephyr's voice said into his commline, "Where are you?"</p><p>Thrush startled and checked the time. He was late to his shift- <em> very </em> late.</p><p>"I'm sorry," he replied, frustrated by the wrecked sound of his own voice, unable to disguise the sound of crying, "Evan is sick. I'm at home. I didn't realize what time it was." </p><p>"How sick?"</p><p>"It's, um- the flu. It's common, but he's got a fever. He's in and out of sleep and he's not really lucid."</p><p>"He shouldn't be alone, then?"</p><p>"I don't know," Thrush admitted, "I don't want to leave him alone. I'm worried about him."</p><p>"How long have you been sitting next to him and crying?"</p><p>Thrush didn't appreciate the cutting remark and lashed his tail. "I've been with him for the last day and a half," he answered.</p><p>"You need to get out of your house and your own processor," she replied, "I'll watch him."</p><p>Thrush hesitated, then pulled away and sat up. "What?" </p><p>"I'll watch him."</p><p>"You'll watch him?"</p><p>"Yes, Thrush, I will come to your house and keep an eye on your boyfriend until you come home and make sure he doesn't die. Is this really so out of character for me?"</p><p>"Yes," Thrush answered immediately, "You <em> hate </em> him. You don't even like my house!"</p><p>"You keep it so warm. And I don't hate him."</p><p>"Still, it's just- thank you," Thrush breathed, still reeling in surprise. </p><p>"I'll be right over."</p><p>Thrush only had to wait a few minutes for his doorbell to ring. Zephyr stepped inside, narrowing her optic at the carpet as she stepped on it, though she didn't comment. </p><p>"He asks for water a lot," Thrush explained, "There's cups in this cabinet. Just fill them in the sink and when he finishes leave them on the counter. Also sometimes he pukes in that bucket. You dump it out in the toilet and then rinse it out."</p><p>"Lovely," she commented dryly, eyeing the unconscious human. </p><p>"In two hours wake him up and give him some more Tylenol," he continued, "Don't let him take it without water." He hesitated. "Really, Zephyr… thank you."</p><p>She was still watching him breathe in ragged pants. "I think you made a good choice with him."</p><p>Thrush stalled. "Excuse me?"</p><p>"He's good for you," she continued without looking up, "He cares about you."</p><p>"Yeah, <em> I </em> know that, but- but I didn't think you'd ever <em> agree </em> with me," Thrush balked.</p><p>Zephyr blinked and then looked up at him. "He saved your life," she said, "And it almost killed him. I've seen humans who won't jump into frozen water for <em> each other. </em>" She looked back down at him. "I almost lost you. I don't know what I would do if you were gone."</p><p>Thrush's wings sank. "I'm sorry," he said, uncertainly. He didn't know what else to say. </p><p>"So if it's any comfort," she said softly, "He's successfully pushed himself to the top of my list of favourite humans. It's a short list, but still." </p><p>Thrush flicked his tail, antennae flattening. "<em>Thank </em> you. It means a lot for you to like him. Even a little. He's good to me."</p><p>"He's good to you," she mirrored, then turned away and waved a hand. "Go on then. You're late."</p><p>"Right!" he yelped, "Right, right. Thank you again!"</p><p>Thrush rushed off, leaving Zephyr alone in the dark room with the sick human.</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>Zephyr took some readings on his vitals and then leaned back against the wall and switched to her HUD, skimming the latest requisition notices to send off to Proxima. It was her job to go through final approvals before they went. It was a lot of paperwork, and their community was small but frustratingly diverse in that she couldn't simply bulk order parts or fuel types. Everyone needed something different, not to mention the humans. </p><p>She huffed when she saw Thrush had added a selection of new requests within the past day. She would double check with him when he wasn't having a protracted anxiety attack to make sure he actually needed them. </p><p>She lost track of time while she worked, and wasn't really paying attention to her surroundings until she heard the human speak.</p><p>"Thrush," he mumbled blearily, "What are you doing?" </p><p>She put her HUD away. "Thrush is on duty. It's me." </p><p>The human sat straight up. "What?" He rubbed his eyes and squinted. At first she wasn't sure why, before she remembered how poor human's low light vision was. He probably could barely see her in the dark, let alone tell what colour she was, especially when she kept her biolights off. </p><p>"Me," she repeated, "Zephyr. I'm keeping an eye on you." She belatedly remembered that she had been supposed to give him another tylenol an hour ago. "Thrush said you were supposed to take more of those." She pointed at the bottle. </p><p>Evan looked over at it. "Oh. Uh. Okay." He opened it.</p><p>"He also said to make sure you took it with water," she said, before he could pop it. He looked embarrassed. She leaned up away from the wall and turned into her trinemate's kitchen to retrieve a fresh glass.</p><p>The human took it from her with what she interpreted to be a wary expression. She stepped back against the wall. </p><p>"Was Thrush okay?" he asked when she didn't say anything else.</p><p>"He was having an anxiety attack," she answered, "but not a very bad one."</p><p>"No?"</p><p>"I rated it a four out of ten. He needed a distraction."</p><p>Evan paused. "What's a ten look like?"</p><p>"Divebombing Commander Seax at 170 miles per hour." </p><p>Evan grimaced. "Right."</p><p>"Don't worry too much. Thrush has always been anxious. Neurotic. He takes individualizing <em> very </em> seriously, and keeps learned associations even when they're conflicting. I spend a few hours a week combing through mine to filter out unnecessary, incorrect or irrelevant data, but he just sorts and keeps all of it. It's not a particular wonder it makes him jittery and paranoid."</p><p>"The commander did say he was a notorious outlier."</p><p>"Oh, she just doesn't like him. He's hardly the only one who does that, just the only one here."</p><p>Evan wiped his face on the blanket with a grimace, rubbing off the uncomfortable layer of sweat. "Thank you for coming over. I'm sure he needed the break." </p><p>She fixed him with a scrutinous gaze that made him freeze, uncertain what he was being gauged for. "You're really planning on staying here, aren't you?"</p><p>Evan squinted at her. "Yes? I live here."</p><p>She folded her arms. "When Thrush went through the ice, how long did you wait before you went in after him?"</p><p>Evan blinked. "I didn't. I made a break for it before he even hit the water."</p><p>"You didn't try to come up with <em> any </em> safer plan?" </p><p>"I wasn't really thinking at all," he admitted, "But I haven't thought of anything else I could have done since, either."</p><p>She blinked her optic and fluttered her wings. "If he had died, what would you have done?"</p><p>"I- I don't know," Evan answered, looking uncomfortable, "I don't want to think about it." </p><p>"Come back here? Petitioned the Americans to go home?"</p><p>"I'm not going back to America," he frowned. "Come back here, I guess."</p><p>She blinked slowly. "Thank you."</p><p>Evan rubbed his eyes and squinted. "For what?"</p><p>"For taking care of him," Zephyr replied, "He's been happier since you moved here."</p><p>Evan perked up. "Really?"</p><p>"He's even talking about living past twenty-five for once. Even I couldn't talk him into that one. He's really taken with you." She sighed. "You could really hurt him, you know. Knowing someone has that kind of power over him makes my plating crawl."</p><p>Evan wasn't certain how to respond to that. "I'm doing my best."</p><p>"I believe you, believe it or not." Zephyr flicked her tail. "I'm glad you're here." She unfolded one arm to watch her fingers curl in and out of a fist. "I have not had many good experiences with humans. I've found them selfish, prone to cruelty, judgemental, impulsive. Evolutionarily predisposed to prejudice. But you are…" She folded her arms again. "A notorious outlier."</p><p>Evan softened. "I see. Thank you." </p><p>"Now go back to sleep," Zephyr said with a flick of her tail, "Sleep off whatever's wrong with you. It sounds gross." </p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>Thrush couldn't be home fast enough. He barely stopped to tag Riot into his shift before he flew home and landed stumbling on the walk as he folded up his wings.</p><p>"Where's the fire, blackbird?" Zephyr asked as she opened the front door and leaned against the frame.</p><p>"Is he okay?" he fretted. She nodded and stepped aside as Thrush entered.</p><p>A very much awake Evan waved at him from his blanket nest. He was a mess, sweaty and tired looking, with bags under his eyes, but he was awake. Thrush checked his thermals. 99.506. His fever was down. He sagged in relief. </p><p>"I'm heading home," Zephyr said, giving him a pat on the back, "Take care of your human."</p><p>"Thank you, Zephyr!" he said emphatically, and she waved as she pulled the front door shut behind her. Thrush immediately scrambled into the nest to grab at him. "<em>Please </em> tell me she didn't give you shit."</p><p>Evan let himself be hugged with a laugh. "Actually, she said she liked me."</p><p>Thrush gasped. "She did <em> not!</em>"</p><p>"Well, not in so many words. She said she was glad I was here." </p><p>Thrush shook his head. "I can't believe it. You've converted <em> Zephyr. </em> I didn't think I'd see the day." He looked up at Evan. "Are you feeling any better?"</p><p>"Yeah," he answered, "I'm on the mend, I think." </p><p>Thrush sagged in relief. "I'm so glad. I was so worried about you. You made all kinds of awful noises, and you were so warm. You talked in your sleep."</p><p>"Oh yeah? What did I say?"</p><p>"You called for your mother sometimes," Thrush said quietly, as if it were a secret, "I think you were having a nightmare."</p><p>Evan was somber. "Mm. Yeah."</p><p>"You don't have to talk about it," Thrush rushed to tell him, though he wanted to know more, "But it did make me think… I don't know that much about you. You know, before."</p><p>Evan shrugged and leaned back. "My mom was a nurse. She was working most of the time."</p><p>"Was it just your mom?"</p><p>"Mm. Dad was never in the picture."</p><p>"Oh. I'm sorry."</p><p>Evan shrugged as if it weren't a big deal, but his expression betrayed him. "He was married, but not to my mom. She never wanted me to know who he was, but. Leave a kid who's good with computers alone unsupervised long enough and they'll figure anything out."</p><p>Thrush's wings sank. "Oh."</p><p>The human was quiet for a moment, like he didn't know what else to say. "I had a dog," he tried weakly.</p><p>"Hey. C'mere." Thrush scooted himself closer so evan could lean forward against his chest and set his head on his shoulder. "It's okay."</p><p>"I know," Evan mumbled, "I'm too old to still be getting upset about this."</p><p>"No you're not," Thrush dismissed, "It's upsetting."</p><p>Evan pulled him closer and sighed warm air across his plating, closing his eyes. "My mom always worked a lot, and then when she died, I felt like I had never really known her at all." Thrush rubbed his back consolingly. "Joining the army was one of my stupider decisions, but I'm still not sure what else I would have done."</p><p>"Did you do boot camp?" Thrush asked, "Did you ever jump out of a helicopter?"</p><p>Evan huffed a snort. "Yes."</p><p>Thrush lashed his tail, intrigued. "Do you know how to use a gun?"</p><p>"Not well."</p><p>Thrush was surprised how much he liked that answer. "Yeah. Me neither."</p><p>"Computer science degree and it's off to a techy position. They offered me a couple, but Ruby was the farthest out I could get. They probably gave me a little too much freedom from oversight, in retrospect."</p><p>"I'll say, you spent half the day getting your ass kicked at PUBG by the enemy."</p><p>Evan tittered with laughter. "Hey, now. I got my ass kicked at Counterstrike, but I definitely did better at you at PUBG."</p><p>"That's only because other people kept killing me. I didn't lose to <em> you. </em>"</p><p>"I was strategically using other players to my advantage. It's called 'strategy,' Thrush, look it up." </p><p>Thrush laughed. "We don't play enough co-op. We'd probably do better."</p><p>"Probably," Evan said fondly, giving him a squeeze. </p><p>"Are you hungry?" Thrush asked, "You didn't eat at all yesterday. Do you think you could keep something down?"</p><p>"Yeah, I'm starving. I'm feeling a lot better."</p><p>Thrush disentangled himself and headed for the kitchen, flicking on lights as he went. "You want a sandwich?"</p><p>"Only if you remember to peel the paper off the cheese this time."</p><p>"How was I supposed to know that wasn't edible?"</p><p>"You have Google in your brain!"</p><p>"Hey," Thrush said accusingly, leaning around the corner to point at him, "You ate that paper and you liked it. Leave me alone."</p><p>Evan rolled his eyes.</p>
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